APPLE VALLEY -- Unable to pay for a funeral, an Apple Valley woman reportedly told sheriff's deputies she was forced to bury her husband in a shallow grave in the couple's backyard weeks after the man died, according to San Bernardino County Sheriff's officials. Investigators are trying to determine if the man died of natural causes.

The identity of the deceased man has not been released. The woman has also not been identified but neighbors and San Bernardino County property records show they are Thomas and Yvonne Winn.

"She's a really nice lady," said Colin Wilson who lives behind the Winns. "She would always wave to me every morning."

Apple Valley deputies were called out to a home in the 16000 block of Navajo Road around 1 p.m. Wednesday for a welfare check on a 63-year-old man, according to authorities.

At the home, deputies found the man's 59-year-old wife who told deputies her husband, who has not been identified, had died weeks earlier, according to sheriff's officials. Unable to pay for a funeral, she reportedly told officials she buried him in the backyard.

"I saw her kneel down near where the cops started digging and she just broke down," Wilson said. "She was obviously devastated."

The man's body was found in a shallow grave and his body did not appear to have any obvious signs of trauma, sheriff's officials said.

The woman was not arrested pending a cause of death ruling from the coroner, according to Cindy Bachman, spokeswoman for the sheriff's department.

"I just feel terrible for her," he said. "I can't imagine what she went through."

In the first hour, the online fundraising effort had already raised $120.

Phyllis Jerscheid, owner of Jerschied's Men's Apparel in Victorville, said she would donate a suit to the Winns so he could be buried.

"This story just broke my heart,"Jerscheid said from her busy store on Hesperia Road. "I wanted to help in some small way."

The couple had recently purchased the home in November but moved in early this year, said Wilson, after some repairs had been made to the property.

"She was out there almost every day painting and fixing up that house all by herself," Wilson said. "She's a really strong lady."

A day after their neighborhood was overtaken by sheriff's investigators, news vans now lined Navajo Road.

"It's really weird to think that she was able to do this and no one saw anything," said Wilson as he stood in his back yard which faced the rear of the couple's home. "We all have chain link fences here and we can see right into each others back yards. I can't believe no one saw anything."

It's a violation of the state's health and safety code to bury a human body anywhere other than an approved and recognized cemetery.